Archive for February, 2006

the johari window was invented by joseph luft and harrington ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. by describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.saw kurt’s…and thought it was an interesting thing to do… so here’s the link to mine 🙂

i was recently emailed this statement a groups of islamic scholars released regarding the cartoons published in the danish newspapers. thanks ahmad 🙂i still don’t have an official stance on the whole issue, but this statement makes me feel slightly more positive about the muslim world and it’s response…there are quite a few things in the statement i agree with, but some i don’t…an interesting read…

“Pakistani security guards have shot dead two protesters in Lahore during unrest over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad, officials say.” Read more here Most AIESEC Lahore members have been contacted and are safe, we’re still trying to contact others.Those who have families based in Islamabad are being contacted.

There’s been some interesting debate amongst the LUMS instructors over the caricatures of the Prophet (sws). Here’s some emails…

“I agree that freedom of expression is indeed a fundamental right of anyhuman being or society. However, limitations have quite often been used inmany laws and constitutions of democratic societies to uphold restrictionson hate speech and obscenity. In French law, public speech or writingsthat incite racial or religious hatred, for example neo-nazi ideas, areprohibited on the same basis. Similarly, Article 5 of the GermanGrundgestez (“basic Law”) includes some restrictions on free speech, forexample personal insults or hate speech (Volksverhetzung). The IrishConstitution categorizes “blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter” asthat which cannot be granted the right of free expression. In fact, onJuly 18, 2003 Dorota Nieznalska was sentenced to six months in Poland forpublishing an art work that showed a penis on a cross, which wasconsidered to be an insult to religious sentiments. Similarly, On January5, 2005 another man was sentenced to a fine of about 5000 euros forinsulting Pope John Paul II. The European Convention on Human Rights(November 4, 1950) sums up many of these restrictions on freedom ofexpression:

The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties andresponsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions,restrictions or penalties as areprescribed by law and are necessary in ademocratic society, in the interests of national security, territorialintegrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, forthe protection of health or moralsfor the protection of the reputation orthe rights of others,for preventing the disclosure of information receivedin confidence, or for maintaining the authorityand impartiality of thejudiciary. [Emphasis mine]

How exactly should the Muslims and their governments protest against thepublication of these cartoons is a separate question. The fact that someMuslims resorted to arson is indeed wrong. But, it would be unfortunate ifthat made the world forget the most important thing about free society:that all humans have certain inalienable rights; but, they also have somebasic responsibilities. It is on the basis of this principle that weregard calling a black man a nigger or a Jew a kike as indecency ratherthan free speech as such, for all human experience has shown that, whetherwe wish to criticize an idea or justify it, the all-important battle ofideas can never truly be won without superior morality. The question,therefore, is Couldn’t the same ideas be expressed as effectively in adecent way? Academic critiques on Islam and vociferous criticisms againstthe Muslims by many renowned scholars (as Bernard Lewis for example, whois still widely read in Pakistan) have shown us that they can be. However,without responsibility, freedom can quite easily become what it was nevermeant to be: indecency and oppression.

It must also be emphasised time and again that quite often it is we whochoose the shackles of slavery ourselves by the choices we make. It ishere that “Freedom is Slavery” (in Orwell’s words). Who is stopping theMuslim world from making a strong statement economically? What is it thatwe truly and really need from the West? Technology? Maybe. Maybe not. But,at least, let’s stop buying European products that are not our dire needs.It became quite obvious after the Bajour bombing how much spine we have asa people. Economic sense. Maybe. At least, that’s some kind of twistedjustification. But, do we or do we not have any dignity? Can’t we evenabandon the purchase of a few European luxuries to defend our Prophet’ssacred honour (sws)? Maybe I am just overreacting, but I don’t think I saweven half the emotion on this one that LUMS demonstrated in the wake ofthe earthquake.

Asif IftikharLecturer, Islamic Studies”

Miguel replied to this (he’s an instructor with the social sciences department and originally from portugal, though he’s settled in Pk now).

“As a “European” and a Muslim let me elucidate some points:First of all, as we are supposedly all inteligent and well-read people (we do attend a university) I’m pleased to see that very few people at LUMS buy the “Clash of Civilisations” theory (where do the Mediterraneans like me fit?). But it is as erroneous as to generalise about Arabs and Muslims as it is talking about a unified “West” or even a generalised “Europeans”. There is a stark difference between Southern, Northern and Eastern Europe. Just because some countries have strong economic (and in the near future legislative) ties, does not mean we are “one”.

Secondly, the vast majority of “Europeans” are against these cartoons, for the simple fact that they would not like their own beliefs to be ridiculed. Also, they know when newspapers are reprinting stories for the sake of “freedom of expression”, or for the sake of making a quick buck.

Thirdly, all the newspapers that printed the cartoons are private companies that have very little to do with the governments ruling these countries. And although stopping consuming their commodities is a very good way to get the message through (hit them where it hurts), it will not directly affect these newspapers.

What is interesting is that during the Iraq invasion discontent Muslims all over the world had the possibility of having a bigger impact by boycoting American companies (many which contributed monetarily for the present administration’s re-election campaign) and did nothing.

By the way Asif, you’re not overreacting, but asking the “burger-batchas” not to consume…”

and finally:

“Thank you for your comments, Miguel. Since I completely agree that it isnot fair to make sweeping generalizations about any people, I apologizefor any statement that you might have seen as critical of all Europeans.That was certainly not my intent. While suggesting a boycott of some“European luxuries” I used the word “European” synecdochically and assumedthat it would be taken as such in the given context. Nevertheless, Iapologize if this point was not clear in my message. Furthermore, it wouldbe great if Muslims could make an impact on the concerned companiesdirectly. But, if that is not possible, I don’t see why it would beagainst any democratic or civil norms to make our displeasure known to thegovernments that “harbour” such miscreants as misuse the idea of freedomto insult our Prophet (sws). The statement we’d be making through aneconomic boycott would still be much more civil than “Either you are withus or against us” rubric to illegally invade an independent country orbombing on remote parts of an allied country to hunt down an elusivephantom terrorist.”

for the past few hours i’ve been listening to the song “in rahon main” by a new band called burzakh – it’s really good, one of those songs you put on repeat and then just keep listening to…the past few weeks have been weird…nlc, transition, recruitment and some weird music society stuff has made me want to just get away from it all.now that nlc is just 5 days away (feb 8-12), and most of the big problems have been resolved, i’ve managed to catch up with most of my emails, meet friends again and get back to blogging.i still need to clean the room – i’ve cleaned parts, but the ones i still haven’t touched are now getting anxious looks from my roommate who has to be the neatest person on planet!! i’ll get down to it soon…before nlc…i hope 🙂i really want to be there at IPM this year – so many people i know are applying for AI…good luck guys!also, cricket fever is running high – y’know, the sort that draws every male in lums to the rec room and superstore so they can watch “just one more over”, the one that makes people have one hour long conversations about bowlers, batsmen and wicket keepers like they’re people they grew up with!random thoughs running through my head – the most important must stay there…weird…